PUNE: Ahead of Budget 2020, pharmacy companies across the country have demanded a uniform set of guidelines to regulate e-pharmacy that can boost the reach of medicines for all and generate more employment as well.
Medlife.com Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Saurabh Agarwal said that e-pharmacies provide healthcare access and affordability to millions of Indians while creating new jobs and attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
“Thus, a uniform set of guidelines will help regulate the e-pharmacy business and give clarity on registration and licensing for others in the segment,” said Agarwal.
“It will also resolve the issues faced by the online pharma industry such as inventory management. Once the government comes out with a notification, e-pharmacies can look forward to better growth opportunities. We also expect the upcoming Budget to focus on inclusiveness of new-age companies and focus on ground-level work in the healthcare domain. There is also an urgent and massive need for innovative, tech-based, large-scale as well as affordable healthcare solutions in the country,” Agarwal added.
Sharing his views, Gaurav Jain, Vice President and Co-Head of Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency (ICRA), an independent and professional investment information and credit rating agency, said that the key sensitivities for the pharma industry will be regulatory interventions such as price controls and compulsory genericisation for the domestic market.
Amit Choudhary, Founder and CEO, Dawaa Dost, a generic medicine pharmacy chain said that the government had pushed for affordable and accessible healthcare in its last term. “We hope that this year’s Budget will also have some concrete action plans to realise this vision,” she added.
“Innovative, tech-based, large-scale and affordable healthcare solutions are the need of the hour in India and our expectations from the Budget also revolve around the same. We hope that the government will simplify regulations for pharmacies buying medicines from GST paid channels. There should be 100 per cent input credit for such entities and the working capital must be freed, even under circumstances where the manufacturer or authorised distributor have erred on paying the deposit. The retailer has no recourse to anyone else nor the margins to absorb the entire GST as is the case today,” Choudhary said.
“We also hope that the government will consider offering income tax breaks to affordable medicine providers like Dawaa Dost as this will make them more accessible to the masses,” added Choudhary.
